Unlimited Energy device?

[KAknight]

I ran across this and was wondering if a few of the more engineering-minded members could tell me if it looks for real. I am only doubting it because it was posted on April 1. Here is the link

http://www.cosmiverse.com/beaten04010202.html

Here is a link to the patent of the device. It makes me think that it is for real.
Patent Office

[TheBurningCat]

I havn't check the link yet but is it a cat with buttered toast strapped to its back ?

[Max_Confusion]

Cat to much ART BELL!!!

[caddmannq]

Hmmm...does the energy emitted exceede the energy required to construct and operate the device? This would definately be perpetual motion if it does. The claim is that the energy supplied (in excess of this) is delivered "through" time! That is, extracted from the past/future. (Not clear which...will have to read more.)

Boy, it sure sounds like a pipe-dream!

[osprey4]

Of course, the skeptic within me doubts the validity of this invention.

longitudinal electromagnetic (EM) waves which exist in almost infinite abundance in the vacuum of space

I mean, really!!

Besides, there's a difference between getting a patent filed and defending it.

John

p.s. Can you say "cold fusion"?

[caddmannq]

Well, electromagnetic waves (radiation) of all spectrums do permeate all space-time, as far as we know. Every solar cell extracts the stuff from visible waves (light) to generate power.

This thing seems to be a sort of self- excited "magnetic pendulum."

Imagine a compass needle. Push it off of north, and it swings back. It actually swings too far, and returns back & forth like a pendulum, until air resistance and friction damp the motion out, and it stops. A perfect compass, frictionless & in a vacuum, could theroetically go on swinging for ever. But any attempt to extract work from the needle would damp the motion & it would eventually stop. You can apply power to excite the motion (wind up the "clock") but you never get out more tha you put in.

This thing seems to force electrons to oscillate through a wire, as an alternator does, but without moving parts. As the entire Earth constantly moves through the universal field, you might consider this device as the rotor in an alternator, where the entire universe is the stator. But I don't see how it overcomes the localized damping effects of the Earth's (largely) static magnetic field. To me it would be like trying to see a flashlight shine on the road in broad daylight. The effect is washed away.

Am I missing the whole point here?

Perpetual Motion machines were a fad a few years ago but all proved to be gimmicks. There was one where a suspended needle in a foil lined test tube went back and forth, getting its energy from the radioactive material on the foil. Well, they figured it'll work for a couple of hundred years - the half life for the radioactive material and then stop.

There is no such thing as a perpetual motion machine, IMO.

You can't have perpetual motion in an open system. It's pretty much a given in physics do to things like friction and natural occurances like entropy. In a hypothetical, frictionless, closed system, it would be possible. Notice that big fat 'hypothetical'.

-Whir

[caddmannq]

I agree about perpetual motion & the laws of thermodynamics as well. But this may not actually operate in the system you're considering. What if it doesn' t actually "manufacture" energy, but merely collects it from the diffuse field of the universe, using that selfsame diverse energy field to do the work of collection? It could be horribly inefficient in relation to the universe, yet having an almost infinite pool to draw on, efficiency wouldn't be an issue.

I'm not convinced at all that this particular thing works, (not even close) but is it possible for such a thing to work? If you have a huge enough field to draw upon, does the problem of a small "delta t" for the system become moot?

[Solid Snake]

A perpetual motion machine may be able to be developed but no machine can move forever while providing power output. Nothing can be > 100% efficient. The closest thing to a perpetual motion machine I have come across is this toy. It is a magnetic levitation top. You spin the top and it spins in midair on a magnet. If the top could be spun up in a vacuum, I can't think of any possible release of energy. No friction (air or otherwise) maybe the magnets would create a small amount of heat but I don't know about that. I've seen this top spin for over 9 minutes with air friction.